If the annual upward trend of repeat offenders in Alaska continues at the current 3 percent rate, by 2016 the state will need a new prison, according to data presented by Sen. John Coghill’s office during a judiciary committee meeting.

An omnibus bill currently in the Senate would create a Criminal Justice Commission, 24/7 sobriety program and increase the felony theft threshold from $500 to $1,000, among other things.

Coghill, R- North Pole, is one of the four senators behind the push to reform criminal justice in Alaska.

Jesse Kiehl, Sam Kito III and Catherine Reardon were announced Monday morning as the candidates that Gov. Sean Parnell could choose from to fill the House district 32 seat vacated by democratic Rep. Beth Kerttula.

Parnell has 30 days to appoint someone to the seat, which Kerttula officially resigned from on Friday, Jan. 24.

Could a $15 billion railroad project reduce the cost of living in Alaska overnight? Matt Vickers, a lead member in the startup group G7G Railway Corp., thinks it can.

Vickers’ Vancouver-based group is proposing a 1,600-mile railroad from Fort McMurray, Alberta, into Alaska. About 240 miles of the rail would be laid in the state. The railroad would primarily transport bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to Delta Junction, where the project’s creators hope to tap into TAPS, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

Tlingit-Haida Central Council held its first Native Issues forum at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center Wednesday.

Melissa Kookesh helped organize the lunchtime forums, which are held throughout legislative session. She said the council has held them for at least 10 years and that they’re an opportunity for the community, Native and non-Native, to meet with legislators over lunch.

“We like to break bread with each other and this is a way of breaking the ice, so to speak,” Kookesh said.

Several lawmakers learned Sunday evening and Monday morning that they wouldn’t make it to Juneau in time for the session to reconvene this week. Alaska’s pilots can take off and land in some pretty rough weather, but sometimes the fog is just too heavy.

Legislation to ban discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity has a new sponsor in the House and companion bill in the Senate.

Former Rep. Beth Kerttula, a Juneau lawmaker who resigned Friday, introduced House Bill 139 during the 2013 session after a similar bill she introduced in 2011 never received a committee hearing. Kerttula announced her resignation Jan. 21, the first day of the 2014 session.

Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, has taken on sponsoring Kerttula’s bill.